Any failure to shut an Iarnród Éireann freight depot at the North Wall would lead to expensive legal proceedings, the State railway company said yesterday. Arthur Beesley reports.
Defending criticism of its decision to move most of the freight activities to another site in north Dublin, the rail company said it would have broken a contract with Treasury Holdings if it had remained at the site.
Through its vehicle, the Spencer Dock Development Company, Treasury is building a major apartment project on CIÉ land at Spencer Dock. The 1998 agreement was criticised by Government and Opposition politicians earlier this year, criticism which Treasury rejected.
It emerged yesterday that 5 per cent of the freight activities at the current depot south of Sheriff Street would cease when Iarnród moved the base to another site north of Sheriff Street. This means that container customers on the Galway, Waterford and Dundalk/Belfast routes will have to use a road service instead of rail.
Iarnród Éireann said an average of "only 14" container movements per day would be stopped. The development came despite a Government requirement to keep all freight services open until completion of a strategic review of rail services.
Pending the review, the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, moved this autumn to halt an attempt by CIÉ to close loss-making freight services.
The review by Booz-Allen-Hamilton is expected early in the New Year.
Mr Brennan is expected to address the matter at a meeting today of the CIÉ board. Suggestions earlier yesterday that he had sought a report on the development from the CIÉ chairman, Dr John Lynch, proved untrue.
Anticipating the requirement to move the depot, Iarnród Éireann said it had decided a year ago to invest €1 million in a new site. Transferring all services to the new depot would require investment of an additional €12 million. "The facilities in this site will allow 85 per cent of current North Wall rail container volumes to be handled and 94-95 per cent of total rail freight volumes in the North Wall," the company said in a statement.
"A decision was taken not to approve any further significant investment in freight facilities prior to the publication of the Government-commissioned Strategic Rail Review, due to the loss-making nature of rail freight services. In the interim, until the publication of the Strategic Rail Review, Iarnród Éireann will offer an alternative road service for the small balance of our container customers not catered for by rail."
But the move was criticised by Opposition politicians, who claimed it flouted the commitment not to close services until completion of the review.
Labour's transport spokeswoman, Ms Róisín Shortall, said: "I find it quite staggering that they have taken the decision to close these lines without any thorough, expert analysis that interrogates innovative ways of keeping these rail freight routes open."
Her Fine Gael counterpart, Mr Denis Naughten, said: "Again we see the Government publicly saying one thing, while doing the exact opposite behind the backs of the general public. This is a further stealth cutback by the Government, which will see further congestion on Irish roads."
